Executed in 1961, Achrome encapsulates the breadth of Manzoni's seminal and career-defining series as he moved from naturally-drying kaolin-soaked canvases to embrace a range of everyday, often industrially-produced synthetic materials, in this case, artificial white fur. These works are no longer the expression of their creator's ego, nor do they reveal even the slightest trace of the artist's hand in their transformation. They are completely freed from gestural individuality: depersonalised, autonomous and self-defining. Consisting of nothing more than two horizontal pieces of this soft, highly tactile material, Achrome is purged of all representation qualities, even colour, referring only unto itself and its own inherent materiality. In this way, it embodies Manzoni's quest for art works to be, 'Images which are as absolute as possible, which cannot be valued for that which they record, explain and express, but only for that which they are: to be' (P. Manzoni, quoted in M. Gale and R. Miracco, Beyond Painting: Burri, Fontana, Manzoni, exh. cat., London, 2005-06, p. 62). Like Lucio Fontana's Attese and Enrico Castellani's Superfici, Piero Manzoni's Achromes, which he began in 1957, are a radical and highly experimental series of works that aided in significantly redefining and expanding the concept of art in the post-war era. Executed in 1961, Achrome encapsulates the breadth of Manzoni's seminal and career-defining series as he moved from naturally-drying kaolin-soaked canvases to embrace a range of everyday, often industrially-produced synthetic materials, in this case, artificial white fur. These works are no longer the expression of their creator's ego, nor do they reveal even the slightest trace of the artist's hand in their transformation. They are completely freed from gestural individuality: depersonalised, autonomous and self-defining. Consisting of nothing more than two horizontal pieces of this soft, highly tactile material, Achrome is purged of all representation qualities, even colour, referring only unto itself and its own inherent materiality. In this way, it embodies Manzoni's quest for art works to be, 'Images which are as absolute as possible, which cannot be valued for that which they record, explain and express, but only for that which they are: to be' (P. Manzoni, quoted in M. Gale and R. Miracco, Beyond Painting: Burri, Fontana, Manzoni, exh. cat., London, 2005-06, p. 62).

Cataloguing & details

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Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.